2011 Expansion Draft List: DC United

DC United has a very young roster that Ben Olsen will try to save. (Getty Images)

Moving on today in the expansion draft lists, I really wanted to get to this one yesterday but ran out of time.

DC United just missed out on the playoffs this season. Injuries and poor form down the stretch really hurt them when it mattered most. Ben Olsen’s side had games-in-hand in the final weeks of the season but were never able to cash in on them.

Now they go into the offseason with the youngest roster in the league. Protecting the important players won’t be easy but Olsen should be able to keep the core group, along with several others.

Keep in mind the rules of the expansion draft, to read more about them click here.

Protected List:

1. Dwayne De Rosario – No explanation needed.

2. Brandon McDonald – Quality defender, one that really improved their back line once he came over from San Jose.

3. Dejan Jakovic – They really missed him down the stretch in the back. He’ll be saved due to that Canadian flag by his name.

4. Branko Boskovic – A lot of folks wonder what the DC attack would have been like all year had he been healthy.

5. Joseph Ngwenya – Due to the amazingly low number of internationals on their roster, he’ll have to be saved.

6. Clyde Simms – Important player in the midfield for them.

7. Chris Pontius – Another guy they missed down the stretch. Too important for them going forward.

8. Santino Quaranta – Another important player to their attack.

9. Josh Wolff – I went back and forth on this one but he’s still got a couple good years left.

10. Marc Burch – Another quality defender.

11. Charlie Davies – It will be interesting to see if they are able to buy his contract from Sochaux or not.

Home Grown/Generation adidas Players:

Bill Hamid

Andy Najar

Perry Kitchen

Conor Shanosky

Ethan White

Unprotected:

Steve Cronin

Austin de Luz

Kurt Morsink

Jed Zayner

Devon McTavish

Stephen King

Daniel Woolard

Chris Korb

Brandon Barklage

Joe Willis

Blake Brettschneider

Notes:

This could be a tricky team to look at here. I’m not sure what the status of the Home Growns like Hamid and Najar are in terms of if they were to graduate out of that status after this season or not. If one or both did, they would each have to be protected over guys like Wolff, Quaranta and Burch.

If none of their HGP or GAs graduate this season, then for the most part this is likely how it will look for DC. They could possibly save a de Luz, Brettschneider, Korb or King over one of those veterans – which isn’t totally out of the question.

Update: Go ahead and take Kitchen’s name and place him over Ngwenya, forgot that Ngwenya had a green card. Kitchen should graduate from the GA program, he logged a ton of minutes this year which is usually a good indication that he will graduate.

rke

Sorry, Ngwenya is nowhere near the protected list. Remember Olsen is building a young team with potential to get better. Brettschneider, Willis, King, Korb,and Woolard (in that order) all seem to be worth protecting. I don’t think Burch makes the cut. Doubtful about Simms (!) now that Kitchen is slotted into CDM, and Davies seems unlikely to return.